Let me take you back…if you’re a new listener…do yourself a favor and head on over to youtube this week and watch Tom Chiusano parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. You will hear a different Howard Stern. One who argues with his bosses live on the air, and dishes on all kinds of company dirty laundry. Discussing private meetings with Infinity and Viacom big wigs, exposing how Tom was cheating the sales dept. calling out the FCC, just having an ‘honesty is best policy’ when it came to all things show related…His being censored made him hyper sensitive to secrecy and led to him seeking the open promised land of Sirrius and the motto of: ‘No Bullshit’.

Those who post about how horrible the show has become will, no doubt, feel a sting when hearing a younger Howard’s energetic and ambitious plans for his new satellite home, with 3 channels to program, and endless ideas for each one.

You’ll also hear a theme that has been a sore spot between he and loyal fa-fa-flo-hi over the years…something that was exposed during the “Benjy being late” saga: His desire to have someone in charge who could just ‘Get Things Done’. Yes, late nineties and early 2000’s he uses that exact term. Gary is sometimes too inexperienced, too much of a softy or, on particularly bad days, too incompetent to do the ugly dirty work that comes back around to Him. And Tom? He’s the worst General Manager in radio…needlessly injecting himself into the show, promoting jocks Howard deems as competition and also too much of a ‘yes man’ for Infinity and the FCC …Howard loves him as a person, but calls him an idiot and just wants competency in management!

Enter Tim Sabean. He has the energy, the vision, and the talent to execute Howard’s vision for the future…at least at first.

Meanwhile, Gary’s growing personal appearances are a thorn in Howard’s side. “How about staying home and thinking about the show?” he'd moan from time to time. Then Gary starts taking Ronnie along to help open up strip clubs. Ronnie’s antics and crazy personality become far too interesting to keep him off the air. So now, you have ‘Celebrity Employees’. Great for providing content for the air…but possibly hurting the internal business side of things. Still, it’s just a drip of a complaint here and there.

Time goes on and Tim Sabean begins to develop a kooky personality as well. He’s a horrendously bad speller. He’s yukking it up with Back Office staff. He’s beefing with Ross Zapin during the Wrap Up Show and emailing pics of his bald head to other employees. Ross lets it slip that he’s not alone in the company when it comes to worrying about Tim's professionalism. Ouch. Another wacky celebrity/person in authority on Howard’s staff.

Moving forward on the timeline…Gary is now on every Late Night talk show, promoting his book. An irritated Boff jokingly asks how much longer…until one day, the joking stops and Howard has to correct him, on air, for discussing good vs bad guests in an interview. And like other times when Howard berates Gary, he goes to a common well: “Do you think this happens with Dave Letterman?” Or if not, “Do you think Loren Michaels would put up with this shit?”

Ronnie is also in the height of the Block Party era… One of my personal favorite times in show history. Back Office Radio is on. Jason and Will are killing it by pulling the curtain all the way back. It’s a beautiful time to be a listener. Artie isn’t around…but the show still has a manic pace, with constant on air beefs with Brandano, and JD and Hein and Shuli and epic Wrap Up show throw downs between Jason and Benjy and Scott DePace and Gary…and the incomparable Scott the Engineer! Glorious days.

But then, five events set into motion a new, more clandestine, era.

The first is small but significant: Jason Kaplan starts wearing a Blazer or Sports Jacket into work. He thinks it makes him look less fat. It starts a domino like chain of events. Howard comments that the slobby guys on his staff should look more professional…and zeroes in on Gary particularly and says he should start wearing a jacket. Gary fights this…but eventually gives in. Howard is wanting at least the outward appearance of the competence and professionalism he has been screaming for over the years. Once he sees what’s possible…there is no looking back. The loose Back office atmosphere is gone…something has to take its place.

Ronnie asks Howard in an elevator ride up to the studio if it’s ok to screen “Private Parts” at a Block Party event. Howard goes off like he’s on fire in the studio and says he wants the Block Party to be done. Over with. He’s sick of his staff all becoming celebrities and making money off the show. He’s sick of Lisa G’s sweet and greet events that are an attempt for her to cash in on the success of the Block Parties…he goes on to bemoan how disgusted he is that she’s another one promoting a book. She gets a rare on-air rebuke from her crush of a Boss. He tantrums over having a producer who is out promoting a book or doing TV specials with Hein, or gone over the weekend to attend CES in Las Vegas when he should be thinking about the show! His anger is real. It’s awkward. And you can feel the staff sort of deflate as they collectively realize that the gravy train is leaving the station. It’s not too long after this that Back Office Radio is canceled without any mention on air until some callers get through and Howard, in a manner not consistent with the honest and candid guy from the KRock days, brushes it off with the infamous glib, ‘It’s on hiatus’ answer.

Shit Gate. Tim Sabean, once, the bright and shining knight brought in to replace Tom Chiusano is shamed and made out to be a kind of good natured but shameful baffoon. Tim’s feelings are actually hurt…And Howard possibly realizes he needs someone new at the helm…and maybe begins to have doubts about making everyone in his professional life an ‘on-air’ personality.

AGT. Howard signs on and comments about how efficient and professional the crew is over on the TV side. He doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to his feelings that they: ‘know what they are doing’ as far as how to pull off a big show. Again, Howard sees how the writers and crew over at Letterman, and SNL and now AGT are interchangeable…answerable to higher, authoritarian figures who aren’t afraid to fire and hire talent…and he’s finally ready to have that same level of perceived professionalism in his own hallways…especially now that ‘A listers’ are willing to come in and kiss his ring. It’s time for a change.

Robin’s cancer. Howard thinks it’s the end. But Robin bravely requests that she continue to broadcast during her fight…only on the condition that it’s not a topic of discussion as to why she isn’t physically in the studio. For almost a year there is an elephant in the room that is not discussed with the fans. Astute listeners notice she sounds different, or is just not there when the show starts. Then guests keep fucking up and revealing she’s not in the studio. Even In Demand Episodes clearly show that she’s not there for crying out loud…but Howard and the once open Wrap Up show are completely silent about ‘WHY’. Why isn’t she there? Anger starts to build among the listeners and callers. Mistrust. What’s with the secrecy? Finally, all is revealed. And most of us accept that our anger was misplaced…but the seeds for being able to have an Open Secret that you can brazenly keep from the fans have been sown…and just not talking about a glaring issue is now something that the show can apparently get away with.

And so all these little snowballs begin to grow into an avalanche…culminating in a cloak and dagger clearing of house that the old Howard would have brought out into the open…as he did with his divorce, as he did with Jackie leaving, as he did when Stuttering John left. Tim Sabean, the Howard TV crew, Tracy Millman, and now Lisa G…all who were big parts of the show and the show history…gone and silently replaced like a bad TV show that doesn’t respect the intelligence of the audience… John Hein once called that kind of behavior 'jumping the shark'.

And so now, a new boss is at the helm. We all know her name. We know she’s there. And Howard finally got his wish. For better, or worse…someone is finally “getting things done” for him. Efficient. But the high cost is self imposed show censorship…The exact same censorship he was fighting with Tom Chiusano about. It’s true, to beat a monster…you have to become a monster. It used to be that Howard would rail against a GM who would smile and pretend nothing was wrong as the show suffered…it was an affront to his fans…”honesty!” He cried. “Come with me”, Howard asked… ‘to a land flowing with truth and no censorship.”…Sure, you will pay for this new honesty…but “it will be worth it” he told us…He refused to be silenced…And now? Well, now the silence is deafening.

Listening to the entire Tom Chiusano saga it's easy to see that Tom and Howard were not only on the same page but two peas in a pod.

Howard asked Chiusano to come to Sirius with the rest of the HSS but he was too smart for that.

Sabean was supposed to be a version of Tom but he was doomed to fail because everyone knew and could see that it was Howard who control content, budget and compound. Sabean couldn't claim FCC or suits from upstairs to make his act work.

I think the writer is a goddamned idiot. He seems to lay much of the blame for the show sucking on Howie's support staff, when the fact is, the show was tanking by 2007, and one MAIN reason was Beffy. Laziness and PC Howie killed the HSS, not the Block parties or book tours.

Ohhhh and the hero Robin who trudges on through cancer, and nothing is said, like we didn't know....